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-2000 Lines of code (2004)

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542 points xeonmc | 5 comments | 25 Jun 25 19:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.602s | source
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bironran ◴[25 Jun 25 22:55 UTC] No.44382555[source]▶
One of my best commits was removing about 60K lines of code, a whole "server" (it was early 2000's) with that had to hold all of its state in memory and replacing them with about 5k of logic that was lightweight enough to piggyback into another service and had no in-memory state at all. That was pure a algorithmic win - figuring out that a specific guided subgraph isomorphism where the target was a tree (directed, non cyclic graph with a single root) was possible by a single walk through the origin (general) directed bi-graph while emitting vertices and edges to the output graph (tree) and maintaining only a small in-process peek-able stack of steps taken from the root that can affect the current generation step (not necessarily just parent path).

I still remember the behemoth of a commit that was "-60,000 (or similar) lines of code". Best commit I ever pushed.

Those were fun times. Hadn't done anything algorithmically impressive since.

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1. ccppurcell ◴[26 Jun 25 06:54 UTC] No.44384875[source]▶
Hi I'm a mathematician with a background in graph theory and algorithms. I'm trying to find a job outside academia. Can you elaborate on the kind of work you were doing? Sounds like I could fruitfully apply my skills to something like that. Cheers!
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2. hershey890 ◴[26 Jun 25 14:03 UTC] No.44387541[source]▶
Look into quantitative analyst roles at finance firms if you’re that smart.

There’s also a role called being an algorithms engineer in standard tech companies (typically for lower level work like networking, embedded systems, graphics, or embedded systems) but the lack of an engineering background may hamstring you there. Engineers working in crypto also use a fair bit of algorithms knowledge.

I do low level work at a top company, and you only use algorithms knowledge on the job a couple of times a year at best.

3. bironran ◴[26 Jun 25 19:59 UTC] No.44390718[source]▶
That was about 20 years ago. Not much translates to today's world. I was in the algorithms team working on a CMDB product. Great tech, terrible marketing.

These days it's very different, mostly large-ish distributed systems.

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4. fuzztester ◴[26 Jun 25 21:40 UTC] No.44391739[source]▶
You can try to get a job at an investment bank, if you're okay with heavy slogging, i.e., in terms of hours, which I have heard is the case, although that could be wrong.

I heard from someone who was in that field, that the main qualification for such a job is analytical ability and mathematics knowledge, apart from programming skills, of course.

5. ccppurcell ◴[27 Jun 25 06:21 UTC] No.44394156[source]▶
Thanks for replying anyway!